Premium
SPECIFIC SUPPRESSOR T CELL FUNCTION IN A PATIENT WITH GRAVES' DISEASE AND HER HEALTHY IDENTICAL TWIN
Author(s) -
BALÁZS CŠ.,
STENSZKY VALERIA,
KOZMA L.,
FARID NADIR R.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
clinical endocrinology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1365-2265
pISSN - 0300-0664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2265.1984.tb00118.x
Subject(s) - suppressor , endocrinology , medicine , function (biology) , disease , cell , biology , genetics , cancer
SUMMARY Immunoregulatory defects have been suggested in autoimmune disorders including GRAVES' disease. The finding that Concanavalin A‐induced suppressor T cell function was sub‐optimal in GRAVES' disease has been disputed; a restricted defect in TSH‐receptor antigen‐specific suppressor cells has instead been proposed by Okita et al. (1980). To explore this further, we studied both specific and non‐specific suppressor cell function in a pair of HLA identical twins, one of whom had GRAVES' disease. By contrast to the euthyroid healthy twin and 10 healthy controls (612 cpm/10 6 cells) the patient's mononuclear cells (MNCs) incorporated more { 3 H}‐thymidine (7365 cpm/10 6 cells) in response to thyroid membrane antigen (TMA). Removal of glass‐adherent cells before addition of antigen increased { 3 H}‐uptake by cells from the healthy twin to 1808 cpm but reduced those from the GRAVES' twin to 3411 cpm. The influence of MNCs cultured with Con A or TMA for 24 h upon { 3 H}‐thymidine uptake by 2 × 10 6 indicator cells triggered by Con A for 72 h or TMA for 96 h was taken as a measure of non‐specific and specific suppressor cell function respectively. Both Con A and TMA induced suppressor cells were reduced, the latter to a more marked degree, in the patient compared to the healthy twin; mixing of MNCs from patient and healthy twin in a 1:1 ratio improved the patient suppressor cell function. When the patient's MNCs triggered for 24 h with Con A were mixed in a 1:1 ratio with her fresh MNCs and TMA, less blast transformation was found compared to an equal number of fresh cells ( 3 H‐thymidine uptake 3250 vs 7365 cpm/10 6 ). Similarly, preincubated cells from the healthy twin had greater suppressive effect (1820 cpm/10 6 cells). We conclude that (I) the HLA identical healthy twin has TMA autoreactive lymphocytes regulated by adherent regulatory cells; (2) the increased ratio of helper/suppressor cells in the adherent cell population in the patient leads to a decrease of {3H}incorporation upon their removal; (3) in the patient, the specific suppressor cell defect is more severe than the non‐specific defect; (4) lack of specific TMA induced triggering may be the critical immunoregulatory defect in Graves' disease.